Chapter 8
Chapter 8: Nightmare Out of the Cage
Although Higuchi Ichiyo was not the talkative type, she was still very interested in this new guerrilla leader.
There were simply very few women within the Port Mafia, and even if there were, they were mostly in the Funding and Intelligence groups, so for a member of the Martial Arts group like her who was out and about all day long, there simply weren't many chances to meet fellow members of the same sex.
What's more, this new female member had become her immediate superior, so there must be a lot of opportunities for contact in the future.
In public and private, she wanted to get on good terms with this young girl.
Along the way, the two had a conversation.
But fortunately, compared to other women, Higuchi Ichiyo obviously did not have much "womanly flavor", and most of the topics she threw out were related to her work, which allowed Tokisaki Kurumi to easily pick up the conversation.
If the topic was cosmetics or something like that, then it would really involve her knowledge blind spot.
After about half an hour, the two arrived at the target factory.
The factory was located in a vacant lot on the outskirts of Yokohama, a remote area far from the city, and there were hardly any passing cars.
The factory appeared to have been abandoned for a long time, with its rusty iron gate in disrepair and its wire fence long since overrun by plants and vine-mans, making it a habitat for small animals.
"This is the destination." Higuchi Ichiyo extinguished his headlights and parked farther away from the factory, "According to the informant's information, this is one of a certain organization's strongholds in Yokohama, with an unknown number of armed personnel and an unknown number of aliens inside, so please proceed with caution."
"I will."
Opening the car door and throwing down these words, Tokisaki Kurumi took a graceful step towards the factory not far away.
Eyes on the young girl's departure, Higuchi Ichiyo put on his bluetooth headset, picked up Ogai Mori phone, and reported to him, "Boss, Tokisaki-san has already departed."
"Very well, Higuchi, activate the drone."
"Yes."
Higuchi Ichiyo took out a sophisticated maneuvering instrument from the trunk of the sedan and flipped the switch.
A camera drone that could barely be seen in the darkness of the night was then activated and flew through the air.
Maneuvering the drone slowly, the noise-free drone then caught up with Tokisaki Kurumi and followed her not far away.
"Higuchi-kun, although your mission is to figure out Tokisaki Kurumi psychic ability, it is not necessary."
"Yes."
"Proceed with caution, it doesn't matter if you don't capture anything, prioritize the principle of not letting her find out."
"Yes."
An investigation mission was the most testing of one's comprehensive strength.
The executor not only had to have superior judgment, excellent vigilance, and sharp intuition, but most importantly had to have the ability to leave gracefully after being discovered.
This was the quickest and most effective means of figuring out what a psychic's powers were.
That's right, Ogai Mori was trying to figure out Tokisaki Kurumi ability through this mission.
As for Higuchi Ichiyo, not only was he the driver, he was likewise the watcher.
A watcher who could always report back to him about Tokisaki abilities.
Although he could have directly asked Tokisaki what his powers were, Ogai Mori knew that someone like her was more guarded than anyone else, and even if he said it, it could be false information.
That's why one of the purposes of the mission he sent Higuchi Ichiyo on with Tokisaki Kurumi was to try and figure out what her powers were.
Tens of kilometers away at the port mafia headquarters, in the Boss Building, Ogai Mori looked at a huge projection screen not far away.
The image on the screen was clearly the image taken by the night vision camera that was linked to the camera drone and transmitted in real time from Higuchi Ichiyo.
With the highest precision night vision camera photography, Tokisaki Kurumi back was clearly captured, so he was able to see Tokisaki Kurumi every move.
She didn't seem to realize that she was being watched, walking leisurely.
Only when she got close to the factory, a huge circular diorama appeared out of nowhere behind her, covering her body.
"Higuchi-kun, fly to her side."
"Yes."
The screen quickly changed angle and captured Tokisaki Kurumi side face and part of the circular diorama.
It was a huge clock, like an enlarged version of the clock in Tokisaki Kurumi left eye, with twelve Roman numerals occupying one moment of the clock each.
"A classically styled Roman clock, and judging from the shape it seems to have some connection to her two flintlock pistols, maybe even a complete set." Ogai Mori thought to herself, "And what are the abilities of this giant clock? And how is it connected to the flintlock pistols?"
Just as Ogai Mori was thinking, a puzzling scene appeared.
On the silver screen, Tokisaki Kurumi actually raised her flintlock pistol and aimed it at her temple.
Even if she was holding an ordinary flintlock rifle, whose range, accuracy and power were far inferior to any recent firearms, shooting at such a close range was still tantamount to suicide.
However, Tokisaki Kurumi still pulled the trigger.
"Eh?"
The expected splattering of brains did not occur, and her figure disappeared into the shot instead.
It wasn't that there was a problem with the drone's monitoring system, but rather that the entire her completely disappeared from the spot the moment after she pulled the trigger.
Both Higuchi Ichiyo and Ogai Mori were puzzled.
What the hell happened?
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"After becoming an Spirit, you've become more sensitive to concepts like sight."
After noticing that Higuchi Ichiyo was watching her, she directly used her ability to utilize the angel [Zafkiel] to instantly enter the factory in shadow.
Zafkiel, there were a total of twelve time-related abilities, one of which was the ability of Aleph to speed up the flow of time of the object that was struck, thus being able to achieve the effect of instantaneous transportation.
In conjunction with the ability to infiltrate shadows, it allowed Tokisaki Kurumi to infiltrate anywhere at will.
"Although it wouldn't hurt to give them a little insight into my abilities, it's Tokisaki Kurumi style to remain mysterious." She muttered, "I know you guys are very curious about my abilities, but I'm very sorry, but you'll have to work a little harder if you want to investigate my information."
Shrugging off the drone behind her, she began to work on the task at hand.
Investigating this factory.
The interior of the factory was filled with closed wooden crates, piled up as far as the eye could see.
These wooden crates provided the perfect cover for Tokisaki Kurumi, and the young girl's slender body was perfectly capable of hiding undetected.
"I haven't done infiltration work before, although I can use Tokisaki Kurumi ability, it's better to be cautious."
Tokisaki Kurumi peeked out and scrutinized the interior of this factory.
Although it appeared to be an abandoned factory from the outside, the interior was not as cluttered and barren as one would expect.
Quite the opposite, all the wooden crates were neatly stacked around, precision instruments and various chemicals were placed in the open space in the center, and everything appeared to be in order.
In the field of view that Tokisaki Kurumi could see, there were about twenty people.
Most of them were unarmed ordinary people who were gathered around the equipment in the center, not knowing what they were doing.
The remaining part, on the other hand, were armed men equipped with weapons, although the equipment wasn't sophisticated, mostly just some pistols, it was still extremely lethal to ordinary people.
From the looks of it, this should be a small stronghold of some organization.
Wanting to get more information, just looking wasn't enough.
"What a pain in the ass, if these people find out, they will definitely be beaten to a sieve, right?" Tokisaki Kurumi thought to herself,
"But this is my first mission, I absolutely can't fail, or else the image I've managed to build up in front of Ogai Mori will crumble."
She looked to the flintlock rifle in her hand and hesitated a bit.
Should she summon her doppelganger to assist her in her mission?